How to become a billionaire with chess?
Welcome, everyone! I'm sure that at some point in your life, you've all thought that it would be great to be a millionaire. I won't deny it, I've certainly thought about it many times! However, we can all agree that it's not easy to achieve as very few people in the world are millionaires.
If we asked all the world's millionaires, each one would tell us a different story about how they acquired their fortune: inheritance, founding Apple, winning the lottery... But what if there were a way to become a millionaire through chess?
Well, after doing some research, I've found that not only is it possible, but there are also several ways to do so. You may like some more than others, but they have all helped people amass great wealth.
I hope you're ready, because I'm about to reveal the secret to becoming a billionaire in a way that's sure to be fun for all chess lovers! So, let's get started, time is precious!
1. How to earn your first million
3. Earn more money than you can count
5. Keep accumulating for the sake of accumulating
I suppose this is the method that most people think of when they consider how to win money at chess. If you think about it, it's very simple: the prize money for the World Championship is around two million euros. The winner takes home around 60%, plus bonuses for winning games. This means that if you win the tournament, you will have earned over a million euros.
The theory is straightforward, the difficult part is winning all the previous tournaments and reaching a sufficient level of play. In the history of chess, only 18 people have won this title, and many players haven't come close, despite people with a little knowledge of chess might tell you they deserved it.
The fastest way to win a million euros is to win it all in a single tournament. However, there's also the slower method of winning small prizes in many tournaments until you accumulate the desired amount. There are hundreds of tournaments played each year, some online and some in person. At the most prestigious events, such as the Sinquefield Cup, Tata Steel and Norway Chess you can win €10,000 for coming last and having lost all your games. If you receive invitations to all of these tournaments and achieve good results, your winnings could be substantial.
Currently, there are more players who have won more than a million euros in prize money than there are World Champions. While they are all among the world's best players, many have never come close to participating in the World Championship.
As you can see, Ding and Gukesh, the most recent World Champions, are ranked lower than players who performed poorly in the Candidates Tournament. With the large number of online tournaments and new ones continuing to appear, the number of players earning over a million euros will gradually increase.
This might not be the best way for us to reach our first million, since we're barely at 2000 Elo, but it's something we should always bear in mind. You never know when Magnus Carlsen might call on you to be his coach and help you become the (second) best player in history.
Create a YouTube or Twitch channel
As we've already seen, winning tournaments might not be the ideal method for most of us. However, even if playing isn't our strongest skill, there are other ways to get involved that don't require as much study and knowledge. You don't have to be a chess expert to create a YouTube or Twitch channel. The important thing is knowing a little more than your followers if you want to create an educational channel, knowing how to entertain and make people have a good time if your channel is for entertainment or knowing how to talk and explain things if you simply want to stream some games.
The most successful chess channel by far is GothamChess which currently has almost 7.5 million followers worldwide. Although Levy is a very skilled player, he is primarily known for his YouTube channel rather than for his high Elo rating.
There are also other large chess channels where YouTubers with lower Elo ratings still have the ability to entertain and educate their followers. Examples include BotezLive, Anna Cramling and Agadmator's Chess Channel. They can all make a good living thanks to earnings from these videos.
Although these channels' financial details are not usually made public, statements made by Nakamura at the 2022 Candidates Tournament in Madrid can give us an idea of how much they might earn.
I am losing money in this tournament
Hikaru Nakamura
The Candidates Tournament is one of the tournaments with the largest prize funds. In 2022, Nakamura tied for third place, meaning he received around €20,000. He also received an additional €3,500 for every half point he scored throughout the tournament (he scored 7.5 points in total). Furthermore, he posted a video commentary on his own game after each round. Despite all this, he said he could have earned more money during the two or three weeks he spent competing if he had stayed at home and streamed instead.
While this method may be more accessible to everyone, it still requires a significant time investment and dedication to start seeing results and success is by no means guaranteed. Furthermore, these players are already well-known in the chess world due to their participation in tournaments and impressive results, which gives them a significant advantage over those of us who would have to start from scratch.
Establish a company with a multi-million-dollar value
This method is ideal for anyone who loves chess but doesn't consider themselves particularly good at playing, teaching or discussing it. Even someone who has never reached an Elo rating of 1000 can do it, as long as they still love chess and seeing others enjoy it too. It's as simple as setting up your own chess website. The main problems are that it takes a lot of time to reach a large audience and you need considerable programming knowledge (or a large team) to do it.
Examples of this include chess.com, lichess and Take Take Take. We can start by analysing chess.com, where Erik Allebest and Jarom Severson formed a development team in 2005. The first version was released to the public in 2007, after which they began advertising on social media. Since then, they have experienced slow but steady growth, reaching one billion games seven years later and broadcasting their first major tournaments.
Take Take Take began life in 2023 as a website dedicated to predicting tournament results. Within a few months, they had achieved over 200,000 downloads. They also gained a large following on their YouTube channel during the World Rapid and Blitz Championships. In 2025, they modified the website to allow users to play, learn and socialise with other chess enthusiasts.
Founded in 2010, Lichess is an open-source website, unlike chess.com. This means that others can modify and reuse it. Its first mobile app was launched in 2015 and soon became the second most-visited chess website after chess.com.
Now it's time to find out how much money you could make using one of these apps. As mentioned previously, Lichess is an open-source website that doesn't generate revenue from subscriptions or adverts. It is funded by user donations, a decision made by the creator. In contrast, Chess.com has subscriptions and ads, and it's estimated that it began generating annual revenues of over €100 million around 2022. Following its acquisition by Play Magnus Group, it virtually had no competition and could continue to grow its player base.
While creating a profitable website is possible, it's much more difficult due to the amount of work involved and the intense competition. Many players sponsor their own chess websites but don't achieve the success they had hoped for.
This might sound a bit strange, but it'll make sense once I give a few examples. Just under two years ago, during the World Rapid Chess Championship, something unexpected happened: Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the tournament with only one day left. The most likely explanation would have been illness or a family emergency. However, it was for a different reason entirely. It was because of his jeans. Sound familiar?
The relationship between FIDE and Carlsen wasn't the best at the time and that probably influenced what happened. However, we're not going to discuss who was right or wrong; rather, we're going to look at the consequences of this situation. A few days later, an auction was held for the jeans that Carlsen had been wearing. The winner of the auction took the jeans home for $36,100. In this case, the money went to charity, but imagine if it had gone to one of the people involved in the incident.
Carlsen also soon signed a deal to appear in advertisements for G-Star, a fashion brand primarily known for its jeans. All things considered, Carlsen profited considerably from a controversy that seemed to have arisen out of nowhere.
Another of the most famous controversies, involving a lot of money, was Carlsen's accusations of cheating against Niemann. I don't know how Carlsen manages to be involved in every controversy! You probably all know the story by now, given all the attention it has received, but I'll briefly summarise the situation for those who have been living under a rock these past few years. At the 2022 Sinquefield Cup, Carlsen and Niemann played a game which Niemann won. The next day, Carlsen withdrew from the tournament and implied that Niemann had cheated.
Now comes the important financial part. Niemann claimed that Carlsen, Nakamura and Chess.com were falsely accusing him and had no proof, so he sued them for defamation and conspiracy, demanding $100 million in damages. After much negotiation, those involved finally reached a settlement. However, if Niemann had won the lawsuit, he would never have had to play chess for a living again.
As if that weren't enough, a documentary was also filmed about the protagonists of this story, and the participants probably received some money for taking part.
While this may not be the most pleasant way to earn money, given all the tension and attention it entails, no chess knowledge is necessary to generate this kind of controversy. As we've seen, it can be quite profitable.
Create your own series or book
Finally, let's consider this slightly more creative option, which doesn't require a high level of chess skill. Since the pandemic, chess has become much more popular worldwide than it was a decade ago. This is partly because it's an activity that can be done from home, allowing people to connect with others all over the world, a particularly welcome prospect during lockdowns. However, other factors have also contributed to chess's growing popularity.
I imagine most of you have seen the series The Queen's Gambit. For those who haven't had a minute since 2020 to sit down and watch a show, I'll briefly explain what it's about. It's about a girl who lives in an orphanage, where a member of staff teaches her to play chess. From that moment on, she can't stop thinking about it and strives to improve every day in order to become the best. Throughout the series, we see her participate in various tournaments and gain insight into her life. If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend giving it a try!
But let's not get sidetracked, let's return to the main topic of this blog. While the exact revenue generated by the series isn't public, there are some figures that can give us an idea. It was a success: approximately 62 million households watched it in its first month, and it reached the top 10 in 92 countries, peaking at number one in 63 of them. Rumour has it that Netflix may have paid Anya Taylor-Joy, the lead actress, up to $3 million, although this figure hasn't been confirmed by the actress and may be exaggerated. If this figure is accurate, it suggests that Netflix earned a significantly larger sum.
Besides the television series, the books have also been quite successful. For example, Levy Rozman's book How to Win at Chess: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners and Beyond was published in 2023. While it may seem that books don't generate much revenue, this couldn't be further from the truth. This book is currently priced at just under €20 on Amazon. In March 2026, Chess.com published an article stating that 250,000 copies had been sold to date across the 20 languages into which the book had been translated. I won't do the maths, but it's a good figure.
Another famous book I can mention is KIMPLODES: A Systemic Approach to Chess Analysis, written by the renowned @KevinChessSmith. Let's give it a try and help Kevin get one step closer to becoming a millionaire (and maybe me too, if he decides to give me a cut for this advertisement!)
All you need for these two things is a good idea and to work on it a little each day. While reaching a large audience can be difficult at first, success becomes easier the more people you gradually reach. For example, Levy wouldn't have sold so many books if he hadn't created a channel with so many followers. However, to gain all those followers, he has had to publish almost a video a day for the last six or seven years.
I hope this blog has shown you how easy it is to become a millionaire through chess and that you'll start implementing the methods we've discussed in order to reach your first million as soon as possible. You'll have noticed that some methods take longer, some require more study and some require skills such as creativity or communication. Now, all you have to do is choose the method that best suits you and start succeeding!
In all seriousness, though, becoming a millionaire generally requires a lot of effort and time (unless you're Jeff Bezos' son), and it's not easy at all (otherwise everyone would be one). However, it is possible and although it may seem difficult, it can be achieved with the help of chess, it's always better to do something you love!
I hope you enjoyed these examples of how to do so. If you can think of any more, please leave them in the comments so that everyone who reads this blog, myself included, can continue to work on increasing our wealth. That's all for today, I'll see you in the next blog post!Back to Top
